Tonga's PSA wants ministers' 125 percent pay hike revisited

Tonga's public servants' trade union, the PSA, has called on the Privy Council to abandon plans to increase Cabinet Ministers' salaries by 125 percent.

The government has so far refused to comment to the international media on the issue but it has told local television that the planned rises are the work of a consultant.

The leading pro-democracy MP, Akilisi Pohiva, says the money should go to basic services such as education and health.

A spokesperson for the PSA, Vili Vete, says if the Privy Council doesn't drop the plans the union could take yet to be specified action.

He says such big increases cannot be justified.

"It's too much, it's far too much you know. but at the same the country has suffered as a whole economically this year, you know, and if they do that [increase Cabinet Ministers' pay packets] it will widen the gaps between the top level and the workers."